Fun in the Sun.

It's been a hectic week -- the good part of that is that it flew by!  After a few days without internet (made less devastating by the good ol' Palm Pre), we were visited by family!  Everyone was in town to see Scott graduate from SAIS.  For some strange reason, the Powers That Be at SAIS decided that during work hours on a Thursday would be the perfect time for a graduation ceremony.  While I may have considered taking time off to see the little brother-in-law ("Lamer" according to the last post comment), I could not because that day was also our schools Field Day.

And while, I generally don't put pictures of my students up on this blog...some of these are just too adorable to pass up.  Don't worry, they all have media releases...because my blog is read by so many people.

Yes.  Little man is giving himself bunny ears.

How can you look at these pictures and not want to be a teacher?  Of course, they look much more manageable when they are frozen in time...

Sunburnt and sweaty, I rushed home and showered to get ready for a delicious meal at Vidalia to celebrate Scott's graduation.  Incidentally, it was also Jamie's and my anniversary.  All in all, a pretty fun day.

Tomorrow, we leave bright and early to get to Williamstown!  For Lindsay and Noah's wedding!  Can't wait to see everyone and catch up.  (So much fun!)  I'll post from there...

Do a Good Turn Daily.

Life's been busy lately!  While I don't have the mental capacity to think about what has been keeping me so busy (it's mostly boring anyway), I do have enough to do some trivia!

What was Jamie’s Boy Scout nickname?

a)       Lamie

b)      J Lo

c)       Golden Boy

d)      Slick 

This was one of the ones that I thought no one would get.  Seeing how we only had a couple high school friends present -- none of which were boys -- I figured this was the one that people would have to just pick randomly.

The correct answer is "a".  It is also as creative as the average 11 year-old boy can get.  Lamie went on to be an Eagle Scout -- of which I am extremely proud.  When we first started dating, I listened to tales of his Boy Scout adventures.  I attended the aforementioned tree plantings (which were part of his Eagle Scout Leadership Project).  I proudly sat through his Eagle ceremony.  Fun fact!  Lamie asked Jon Tesh to be his "Voice of the Eagle"...which is just hilarious.  He made a pretty good Voice of the Eagle.  If anything, he is just a very nice guy.

I did not realize how proud I was that Lamie was an Eagle Scout until I got much older and realized that every Eagle Scout I met also happened to be an amazingly-accomplished and awesome guy.  If I'm paying attention, I can spot an Eagle Scout within 10 minutes of conversation.

I'm still bitter that girls don't have a camping/hiking/survival/tree-planting equivalent.  Selling girl scout cookies does not an Eagle Scout make.

Smoky.

My clothes absolutely reek of smoke right now because of this room.  I'm in New Jersey right now visiting excellent schools in the area -- it has been great so far.  The only catch has been the fact that now my clothes, my hair, my books all smell like cigarette smoke.  In order to save some dollars, we decided to book the cheapest rooms available...which turns out to be the smoking rooms.  Discrimination?

Anyway...I want to talk about the other time I was in New York last weekend!  See?

Incidentally, I got a new fish eye lens before the weekend.  Also, New York is photogenic.

So Man Boo and I went to New York to visit Jess and Chad, see Bridget and Anthony, spend some time with Anne Louise, and see an opera to boot!  Even though we weren't there for very long, we had a great time with friends.  Jess even Asian-posed for us.

Okay.  I've got work to do, but I wanted to make sure my friends and loved ones knew I was alive and well in New Jersey...

Thrilled.

As mentioned yesterday, Jamie and I went to see an opera last night -- The Marriage of Figaro to be exact. I know this last series of posts may make it seem that Jamie and I are these uber-cultured people who throw money at the arts, but the truth is that Jamie does all of the purchasing and I just get to go along with the ride. And we usually get those cheaper tickets for the "younger generation" folks who actually buy tickets to go to the opera.

This weekend we are going to see another opera: Tosca. This one, however, is actually a wedding gift -- fitting that we are going to go so close to our third anniversary. AND, it's in NYC! I'm really looking forward to visiting Jess and the NY crew. We'll be hopping on a bus on Friday after work, and catching one back on Sunday.

Then, I get to catch a train BACK to New York for work on Monday (staying until Wednesday evening). While it would have been nice to just stay in New York and not worry about going back and forth, we found out today that we are having a compliance review on Monday and Tuesday for which I must be present. Lame!

I am excited about taking a train, though.

I am also excited to share this video from our last dance party -- it was a celebration for our Prepped Up Preppies. It is so fun to see what happens to a room full of our students when you start playing Michael Jackson...

...and for the record, our students don't normally wear jeans to school. That was part of a fundraiser that we had that day.

Funny Guy.

Don't have time for a long post -- we just got home from the opera and it's time for bed.  But, my friend, Abby (hi Abby!) shared this video with me and I wanted to share with you all.

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Hooray for Jon being credited for his work on the President's speech at the Correspondent's Dinner!  Did I ever tell you all about the time when I had to write a toast opposite Jon for a wedding?  Let's just say that writing a speech for the same event as someone who writes funny (and serious) speeches for the POTUS for a living...that's just terrifying. 

PDA.

Did you vote for us?  Good!  Now on to trivia.


5. Which of the following was not something that high school teachers called Jamie and Melissa?

a)         A pair of dogs

b)        The young lovers

c)         The first high school couple they know to get married

d)        Jalissa 

Jamie and I started dating right after his 17th birthday.  This means that we spent our "honeymoon" period as hormonal, lovey-dovey teenagers.  I still cringe at the thought of how lovey-dovey we were in high school and would like to formally apologize to my former schoolmates.  Of course, I am not really in contact with any of those people these days -- with the exception of my beloved brother-in-law, Scott -- and I think he has to forgive us despite being subjected to the worst of it.

Anyway, I plead guilty to PDA in high school.  While the PDA made it abundantly clear that we were together, nobody called us "Jalissa", having not gone to school with Trent Vanegas or Perez Hilton.

We were, however, called a pair of dogs by Jamie's math teacher.  I very vividly remember being at my locker and Jamie giving me a quick hug in passing.  At which point, Mr. Metzger whirled around on us and called us dogs, citing that where he grew up they would throw water on dogs who were doing that (hugging?).  Jamie and I were both shocked into silence.  The next day Jamie gave me a Milk Bone.

U.S. History was the only class Jamie and I had together 1st semester Junior Year (it was a big deal when he changed his seat to move next to me...friendship bridges were burned.)  Every day before class, Jamie and I would wait outside catching up on our days.  When our teacher, Mr. Maddock, arrived he would say "Okay, young lovers, it's time for class!" and continue into the room.  Mr. Maddock was awesome by the way -- and clearly had a soft spot for Jamie and I.  I speculate he liked the interracial relationship.  Or maybe it was that I was obviously the reason why Jamie started doing so well in History all of the sudden.  (I'm kidding.  That was English.)

Finally, we have been called the "first high school couple [they/I/we] know to get married" by many, many people when it comes out that we were high school sweethearts.

Interestingly, as I was going back to fact-check teacher names, I saw that my high school was rating as one of the "America's Best Prep Schools" by Forbes.  To that I say, "thank you mom and dad, for the hard hours you put in to get my foot in the door.  And thank you, big brothers, without whom I would not have even been admitted into said school."

PSA.

Before I get to today's trivia, I want to do a quick public service announcement.  So, last week I put up a new project on Donorschoose.org in order to get more books for our school.  We got fully-funded within a week thanks the generosity of family and friends (some readers of this blog!) and even a few strangers!  I couldn't believe how fast it all happened!  So a big thank you to those of you who were willing to part with your hard-earned dollars for our students!  You can bet there will be a more complete celebration post once the materials get in and I can get some pictures of the kids with their new books!

Now for the next plea: my friend Ben (father of the adorable birthday boy in the last post) works for KaBoom! which is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful non-profit organization that builds playspaces in areas in need of said playspaces.  They do many other things -- including volunteer at my school every year.  Ben recommended us for a grant that would give our school $20,000 worth of new play equipment in the form of an "Imagination in a Box Playspace."  Seriously, how cool is this?

As a public charter school at the end of a cul-de-sac, our playspace (space in general) is seriously limited.  We have a small playground (that was "imagined" by our students and built in a community build) that is wonderful, but we can only take a couple classes out at a time.  During the winter and wet days our kids can't go out at all...This playspace would be an awesome alternative for our kids during those days.  Not to mention a wonderful way to help them exercise their imaginations. 

So, if you're feeling like supporting our school in our effort to win one, just click this link and vote for our school.  You don't have a pay a penny!  It just takes a minute or so to register and vote.  (You'll find a link to it on the right side of the page.)  Then tell all of your friends!

Spring Weekend.

It's been a busy weekend!  We said goodbye to our friends Dan and Angie who are moving to Tokyo!  They have been our neighbors all along, so it is hard to lose them.  Sad!  After a quick lunch with them, we headed over to one of Jamie's frisbee games.

(They won.)

Then we headed over to our friends' house -- their adorable son was turning two (and it was also a chance for us to meet his new little sister.)

(A little play-by-play of the big moment when he blew out his candle.)

The best was when he kept on running his toy train into the side of the cake so that he could eat the extra frosting.  Clever boy!

Little could top the children's birthday party, but then I had brunch with some work friends this morning and then walked over to the Dupont Farmer's Market to watch Jamie's singing group perform.  I tried to take a video of it to share, but since it was an outdoor venue, my camera couldn't pick up enough of the sound.  I'll just tell you that they were great!

We hung out for a little bit in Dupont Circle afterwards with friends.  We noticed that there was an unusual number of people hanging around on the circle.  We just figured that there was some kind of dance demonstration going on and parked ourselves on the grass to talk.  After 15 minutes or so, the crowd had gotten enormous and I realized that this had all the makings of an Improve Everywhere event.  As soon as I reported as much out loud, some music started and a bunch of people busted out dancing.

By the end there was a pretty big group...

Of course, this wasn't actually an Improv Everywhere event -- probably more of a Facebook coordinated event.  Still, it was a nice coincidence to be hanging out at the park at that moment.

Here's an actual Improv Everywhere event.  (I did not want to link to the video of the No Pants Subway Ride.)  Ted's Birthday video is pretty funny.

All in all, a pretty good weekend!  

Veni, Vidi, Vici

So I spent a few minutes scouring my old blog posts looking for some reference to my favorite guilty pleasure of yore:

I know I have mentioned it before...I'm sure there were online back-and-forths between myself and Drew, but I couldn't find them.  Maybe it's for the best...I wouldn't want to get into a Pacey vs. Dawson battle with the man who married my Man Boo and me.  I'll just say he stands on the absolute wrong side of that argument.

Anyway, Dawson's Creek was my weekly pick for my one hour of weekday viewing.  My father had a standing rule of no television during the school week...but as I got older, he began to be a little more lenient and all of the sudden, I was allowed to watch one hour of television!  (After homework was finished, of course.)  Don't tell my dad, but I would sometimes leave the t.v. on for the first part of Felicity too.

All this to bring us to number four.

1. What haircut was Jamie rocking when he and Melissa first started dating?

a)            The Crew Cut

b)           The Pacey/Caesar

c)            The Wave

d)           Spikes

Of course, the answer would be The Pacey.  Although he did sport quite the Wave in 7th grade.

If only we had digital cameras back in the 90s.  If I did, I could post a picture of Man Boo in 11th grade, and the top of his head would look like this:

Man Boo alleges that people frequently mistook him for Joshua Jackson.  Who knows, perhaps it was my adoration for Pacey that led me to Man Boo.  Not many people can rock the Caesar.  I think George Clooney is the only one that successfully pulled it off...

But it did look pretty adorable on my husband.

The Boat Mobile.

Did I mention that Man Boo got to meet with Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday??  He did!  While he was shaking her hand and introducing himself to the Speaker of the House, I was probably doing something along the lines of erasing stray pencil marks on a Scantron or creating some spreadsheet.  But it's all for the children!

On to trivia!

3) Which of the following was not a bumper sticker on Jamie’s high school Buick?

a)            Winnie the Pooh

b)           Ecology Now!

c)            Dave Matthews Band

d)           Clinton/Gore ’96  

After our bus riding days were over, the era of Man Boo's big honkin' Buick began.  He saved his dollars from years of summer employment as a camp counselor, and he bought himself what we lovingly referred to as his boat.  It was a big, brown, ugly, boat.  It looked something like this:

I should note, that that is not Man Boo's car. But it did not look very unlike that car.  So picture that car, but with bumper stickers.  In fact, he had all of the bumper stickers listed in the question, except for a Clinton/Gore bumper sticker.

Gotta love a man who can have a Winnie the Pooh decal on his car in high school.  Mind you, I went to a school where the parking lot was sprinkled with yellow Range Rovers and sleek BMWs and where Ashton Kutcher could coach the JV football team.  I loved that Winnie the Pooh decal and what it meant about my boyfriend.

While the Ecology Now sticker probably looked ironic on the back of that gas-guzzler, Man Boo tried his best to make up for it by planting hundreds of trees all over Los Angeles as a citizen forester.  To this day, when I go home, I like to wave at the tree that we planted together on Ventura Blvd on one of his tree-planting events that I volunteered at just to get to know him.

And the Dave Matthews sticker...those of you who know Jamie will probably find this hard to believe, but when Jamie and I first started dating, he did not have a very big music collection.  In fact, it consisted of mostly Dave Matthews and a few other albums of the time.  Needless to say, he outgrew that once he got to college...(those of you who started his music addiction...you know who you are...)

We had to put thumbtacks in the ceiling of the car to keep the fabric from coming down!  It had the squooshiest seats!  I could put the armrest up in the passenger seat and scoot all the way over next to Man Boo as he drove!  I miss that car!  So many memories...

The Longest Time.

This week is just dragging along.  At work, our 3rd graders have been hard at work taking the DC-CAS (which is the standardized test that determines whether or not our school makes AYP.)  It's a big deal.  Even though I'm not the one taking it, I am exhausted from it.  I think when the test booklets are around you just have a higher baseline of stress.

You know what's good for stress?  Trivia!


2) What was Melissa and Jamie’s first interaction?

a)            riding on the bus together in Junior High

b)           attending the same Elementary School

c)            playing in the same soccer league

d)           sitting together in High School art history 

So, Man Boo and I went to the same middle and high school.  While I can't remember the first time I saw him, or the first words ever exchanged, I do remember seeing his blond head of hair bouncing around in the front of the bus.  I was in the back of the bus with all of the other miscreants.  Actually, I was in the back because I was among the first to get on that bus..........at 5:20am every morning.  Man Boo, on the other hand, boarded the bus at the very last stop.  We never spoke.

My first Jamie-specific memory comes from ninth grade when I attended some singing concert and he and three other boys sang The Longest Time.  The quickest way to my heart is through Billy Joel.  I remember thinking that he was the cutest of the bunch.  Then we started dating two years later.  Okay, so maybe it wasn't the quickest way to my heart, but it made an impression.

Now that I think back on it, I also remember thinking that he could snap really loudly -- it was distracting me from the song.  This is funny to me now because he likes to make fun of the fact that I am unable to snap.  He enjoys emphasizing how pathetic that is by doing one of his "sonic snaps" whenever I make my feeble attempt.

Next time you're with him, ask him to snap -- it's uncanny how loudly he can do it.

Trivia.

All this talk of anniversary had me reminiscing about my wedding with one of my dear friends recently.  Chances are, if you are reading this blog and you weren't there, than my wedding was pre-our friendship.  Really, the only person I can think of who fits that description (i.e. who is a new friend and who actually reads this blog) is Kayla.  (Hi Kayla!)

Anyway, Kayla, at my wedding (which was awesome -- although I'm very biased) we had some Melissa-Jamie trivia.  My one regret about my wedding -- and I don't regret the giant thunderstorm -- was the fact that we never went over the answers to the Melissa-Jamie trivia.  As is usually the case, the stories behind the answers are funnier (or more cutesy) than the actual answer.  So, when I was talking to my friend about the trivia the other day, she suggested that I actually blog about the answers.  So in the spirit of "It's the month before our anniversary so let's celebrate!" I will.  Of course, I will do this in Zakisauce fashion and just post one a day...it makes it easier for me to think about things to say.  Also, I'm meeting up with a Williams friend tonight for dinner and I gotta be quick!

Question #1 was:

1. What is the name of the restaurant where Melissa and Jamie went on their first date?

a)       Paul’s Pizza Parlor

b)      AB Seafood

c)       Kung Pao Palace

d)      Noodles n’ Pancakes 

Gah.  I kind of wish the first question was more interesting or funny.  Otherwise you all might not buy into this latest project.  Oh well.

The answer is AB Seafood -- which was an awesome Chinese restaurant next to a gas station by our house.  I seriously have no idea how our family discovered it.  But it was GOOD.

Man Boo and I had planned on going to dinner and then seeing You've Got Mail afterwards, but we ended up just talking and talking and talking at our dinner until we missed our movie.  In retrospect, I'm glad I missed You've Got Mail -- because, c'mon.  Really?

It's the sad cousin of Sleepless in Seattle.

Maybe if we had seen that movie, we would never have fallen in love because of the bad memories.  As it was,  Man Boo and I went back to my house and popped in a Sarah McLachlan CD (it was the 90s, after all) and continued to talk (and talk).  Eventually, somewhere in that talking, Man Boo officially asked me to be his Lady Boo -- he is very gentlemanly that way.

To this day, we have not yet seen You've Got Mail.

Oy.

I was looking back at some of my old posts a couple weeks back and I realized that I hadn't been referring to Jamie as my Man Boo as I should have been.  For that, I apologize.

So, come April, Man Boo has a habit of taking advantage of any fun activity that we do and labeling it "an anniversary gift."  Despite the fact that our actual anniversary isn't for another almost five weeks away, Jamie (I mean, Man Boo) treated me to an early anniversary gift on Sunday.  We went to see Fiddler on the Roof!  As someone who has been able to sing the entire play since the age of 9 or 10 -- and who probably breaks out into some rendition of the "Do You Love Me" song on a near-weekly basis (I'm not kidding) -- this is a huge treat.  Especially because we splurged and got excellent seats.

I don't remember who played Tevye when I first saw Fiddler all those years ago (I think it may have been Topol), but this time around Tevye was played by Harvey Fierstein.  Harvey Fierstein as Tevye makes for a completely different Fiddler.  Not necessarily in a bad way...just different.

You have to skip to 1:52 to see Harvey -- but it's kinda entertaining to see Matthew Morrison bouncing around playing Link before then.  

Needless to say, if we were going to sit so close to the stage for any musical, I'm glad it was for this one because Harvey Fierstein has a pretty expressive face.  But, boy howdy, does that man have a raspy voice.  Man Boo and I have been doing our best Harvey-Fierstein-as-Tevye impressions ever since.

Of Trapos.

I always joke about how as a third child, I always got the hand-me-downs from my brothers.  So, I was left to play with GI Joes and Star Wars action figures since I did not get toys of my own.  (Of course, this is a joke, because I know I was doted upon by my family.)  Still, when prompted to talk about toys I had as a kid, I usually say something along the lines of "I played with a rag."

This "rag" of course was my trapo -- or as you gringos might call it, my blankie.

I was attached to my trapo for an embarrassingly long time.  I would hide it from my mom so that it wouldn't get washed.  I would suck my thumb and take it with me on trips.  My trapo and I were inseparable.  Except when it came to bathtime.  Then I had a special trapo that would play with me in the tub.  I had very vivid memories of playing with that rag in the tub -- imagining it was some kind of fish or something.  When I think of playing with toys from my youth, that rag is one of the first things I think of...

I'm happy to see that I am not the only one who understood the joy of bathtime trapo.  Maybe it runs in the family.

Glee Returns!

At the homefront, we have been having troubles...with the Tivo.  Comcast (who I like to picture in my head as a mustachioed villain tying helpless damsels to the train tracks) has changed everything over to digital cable.  The switch happened a few weeks back and rendered our Tivo useless.  After hours spent on the phone with customer service, in line at the repair shop, on the phone with customer service, sticking coaxial cables in different holes, and on the phone with customer service I was ready to maim someone.

Between Jamie and I, someone has to come out as the mean one that complains at restaurants and whatnot.  I'm sure you can figure out which of the two of us that tends to be.  So, I complained.  I argued.  I may have said something along the lines of "Comcast has devalued my property" and "Comcast needs to buy me equipment and provide the installation since I did not elect to have my service 'upgraded'", etc.  Eventually, the guy agreed to send over a guy to look at our Tivo box for free.

Of course, the guy comes today, turns on the t.v., and lo, it works.  Judging from what has actually been recorded over the past couple of weeks, our Tivo started working yesterday at noon.

At least we didn't have to pay for the guy's visit.

Of course, we did pay for the brand-new Tivo box that's coming (it's an HD one!) because the customer service guy had assured us that the digital cable wouldn't work with our model of Tivo.  I've been bugging Jamie about getting HD for a while now...he thinks this was all an elaborate plot.  I can assure you, any elaborate plot of mine will not include the personal hell that is Comcast customer service.  We just got a discounted upgrade is all.  We'll see if I have the guts to try and monkey around with the adapter now that's working in order to install a new Tivo.

At this point, I will not touch the thing until after Glee tomorrow!  Glee is back!  To be honest, it kind of snuck up on me.  But, I will watch.  I'm hoping it's not like all those other shows that starts out strong and then kind of falls apart.  I think it actually may get better because they tied up all the stupid story arcs at the end of last season and just left room for the fun ones.  We'll see though...I've been disappointed by t.v. before.

Still, I have another reason to watch!  A teacher from my school is auditioning to be on Glee.

Glee monologue

Glee | MySpace Video

Don't know what, exactly, this means -- will she still be able to teach?  They are doing this big "if you're a normal person and not an actor, but like to sing...audition!" push, so I think it would actually be more of a one time part as a competitor choir.  Or maybe it falls conveniently within our summer break.  With that in mind I say, go vote for Ms. Grinneby!!!  Wahoo for a DC Prep shout out!  Wanna hear her singing chops?  (I think her talents may be wasted on the "Good Morning Song" and "It's Clean-Up Time")

Glee song

Glee | MySpace Video

Vote lots!  I actually don't have a MySpace account -- nor am I tempted to get one -- so someone needs to put in an extra vote or three for me...

This Looks Familiar...

Apparently, someone was videotaping our attempt to navigate the Japanese subway system in Tokyo...

So this little guy was somewhat of a celebrity in Japan.  While we were there we saw a bunch of posters of him.

I personally like his reaction to the spilled milk (around 0:54) and the glass (around 5:04).  As Jamie put it, Japan is the land of "cute" (among other things of course.)

Two More Favorite Things...

Seriously.  There is nothing better than my nieces in their new little kimonos.

Japan Day 5: Kyoto-o-o

I'm getting close to the end of our journey to Japan.  During the week, I couldn't believe how fast everything was going.  In retrospect, it seemed even faster.

So, my next favorite thing about Japan is similar to the waving, but I will still say it -- it was the bowing and just how polite everyone is.  Granted, there are some mannerisms that are part of Japanese culture that may be considered rude here -- like the pushing.  (I say it's all part of the efficiency that I liked yesterday.  People just want to get there fast.)  I'm still bowing to people just out of habit.

And, even though there was a Day 6 to our trip -- I'm going to cut out of the recaps a little early since Day 6 consisted of one long plane ride home.  So, I will give you a bonus favorite thing about Japan.  The street names.  they were amazing.

So our last day, we got to visit my favorite destination of the trip. The Kiyomizu Temple.  A gorgeous temple on a hillside overlooking Kyoto.  I'm telling you, gorgeous.

We have a ton of other pictures -- see Flickr -- because that temple is so photogenic.  So many Cherryblossoms!

I'm realizing that we probably went to the Ryoanji Temple the day before, but I'm going to pretend we went to it the last day.  The Ryoanji Temple is known for its rock garden.  While I did take pictures of the rock garden, the shadows were not cooperating with my camera.  As a result, the pictures of the rock garden were not as exciting as they could be because you couldn't see the detail of the patterns in the rock.  

Instead, I'll give you pictures of what I like to call the "Lorax Tree Grove" from the Ryoanji gardens.

We also visit the Kinkakuji, which aside from sounding like a Pokemon, is also known as the Golden Pavillion...because it's covered in gold leaf.

We also visited a Sake Museum and tasted some Sake.  It was really interesting to see the process that used to bring about Sake back in the "old days".  It was also really interesting to drive through the narrow streets and see some of the old buildings in this part of Kyoto.

For the last part of our trip, we were dropped off on a main street in Kyoto and just wandered around for a couple of hours.  Jamie expertly led us back to a street that we had seen while in the bus that was very old-fashioned and also was the hub of the Geisha scene in Kyoto.  It was fun to wander around and see Geisha shuffling about or texting on their phones.

Throughout the trip, Jamie had been very open and adventurous when it came to trying new things.  He happily ate a traditional Japanese breakfast every morning (usually rice with dried fish, tamago, natto, pickled radish) and was excited to try out the street food.  On the way back to the bus -- in order to spend the last of our yen, Jamie made the best purchase of the trip.

Incidentally, this is my favorite picture from the whole trip.  So happy!

Grilled mochi.  (That links to some random guy's personal blog where he photo-documented his own personal adventure with grilled mochi.  Thanks, random guy who takes nice pictures of grilled mochi!)  So good.  Mochi, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is a sticky rice cake -- imagine what it would be like if you took a lot of rice and kept squishing it between your fingers until it was gummy.  They then took this mochi and grilled it with soy sauce, sugar, honey and maybe a little sake?  We got the last skewer to the chagrin of many of the Japanese people behind us.  

Which brings us to the last picture of the trip.  We ended up walking alongside the river enjoying the sunset.  It really was a perfect way to end our visit to Japan...

We got up super-early the next morning, made our way to the Osaka airport, and made the long journey back to the States.  While we were sad to be leaving, it was nice to have a day to "recover" from the time difference...although, to be honest, I don't think I've finished "recovering".  That's what weekends are for...

A big thank you, of course, goes to my parents for making this trip possible for Jamie and I.  We quickly learned that the most expensive things to purchase in Japan are 1) Houses, 2) Hotels, 3) Highway Tolls and 4) Gas.  As tourists wanting to see everything we could, we needed to partake of three of the most expensive things...we truly appreciate being able to experience Japan without having to sell an organ...Thanks mom and dad!

Japan Day 4: Kyoto and Nara

Another favorite thing of mine about Japan is that it is very clean.  I rarely saw any trash on the sidewalks despite the fact that there were also very few trash cans.  Our guide informed us that this was because Japanese people rarely eat while they are walking or traveling.  This made sense to me, except for the fact that there were an incredible number of vending machines everywhere.

Not just any vending machines, but vending machines that sold everything under the sun: sodas, green tea (hot or cold), cigarettes, energy drinks, cameras, beer, sake, Haagen Daas ice cream...

According to our guide, if we ever got lost or needed the help of the police, we should give them the serial number of the nearest vending machine as the best way to find us.

We started our next day with a trip to Nara to see the Todaiki Temple which is the largest wooden building in the world.  It also houses Japan's largest Buddha statue.

The city of Nara (where the Todaiji Temple is located) also is home to a ridiculous number of deer.  Which are everywhere.  And the deer are polite enough to bow when bowed to...although this was not caught in pictures...

After a tea ceremony, we visited the Heian Shrine, participated in a traditional tea ceremony, and caught part of a show at the Gion Corner.  

It was exciting to visit Kyoto because of how different it is from Tokyo.  As an "ancient" city, the architecture there is so different -- many traditional buildings, lots of wood rather than the tall glass and steel buildings of Tokyo.

This was also around the time that I finally got over the jet lag -- unfortunately, it was also our 2nd to last day in Japan.  Funny how that works...